Monday, June 22, 2015

Galactic Inheritors Gameplay Review

The single-player title has limited options when setting up a new game. The interface is not great, with several information displays that take up the entire screen. Exploration is a multi-turn process: move, explore, survey for resources. Jumpgate movement means the next system is always one turn away. Entire solar systems are colonized at once, and every system is colonizable without penalty (only starting production and resource values differ). Private businesses are contracted to build military vessels; ship upgrades can be applied as experience is earned. Exploration ships can be used to exploit resources in systems after they are finished exploring, an interesting use for them. Excess commerce is used to unlock empire-wide bonuses, while a deficit in money is borrowed against the research rate. Diplomacy is accomplished by undertaking positive or negative media campaigns against the other races, a slow, gradual process. War is always the end result, and combat is automated. It can take a long time for something to happen, which is less of a problem in a turn-based game but still notable. Despite a couple of novel features, the substandard interface and glacial pace of Galactic Inheritors hinder its appeal.